The Legend of Zelda: The Seventh Sage
by kiboeme
Summary: Where do I start with this? At what point did my simple life as the princess transform into something much more fascinating and important? Did my quest begin when I first took up the sword, or was this all set into motion by my very birth? Building off of "What if it was Zelda's perspective?" and "What if Link was female?" but with a twist. K for minor violence & gore.
1. Chapter 1

Where do I start with this? At what point did my simple life as the princess transform into something much more fascinating and important? Did my quest begin when I first took up the sword, or was this all set into motion by my very birth? In any case, I swear that I will no longer allow the history of my people be neglected. I am afraid to leave out a single thing, so I will begin my records at the very establishment of our country, New Hyrule.

The legends of the founding of this kingdom tell of a Hero and a pirate who departed from their homes on small islands far from shore and braved the dangers of the Great Sea to find the new land. They fought against many evils along the way and, upon their arrival, both worked tirelessly until they had established a country. It was named New Hyrule after their original home and became a prosperous nation. No living man or woman knew of all our legends had forgotten.

I am Princess Zelda-Sayre, daughter of Queen Zelda-Artet and King Knil. Throughout my youth, I had been raised with the upmost expectations, academically, artistically, and politically. After all, I was and still am the future of New Hyrule. I was secluded inside of the castle walls like a penned sheep for the majority of my childhood, permitted to play only with the children of other nobles, none of who were my age, and not allowed outside of the gates until I turned fourteen. I was not discontented with my lifestyle, but it felt empty.

When I found the policeyard and began to watch the men fence and train themselves, I knew that I wanted to try. However, the first and last time I ever approached a policeman to request such training, I was gruffly escorted back to my bedroom and my tutor, Imap. Imap gave me a strong scolding about the decorum of a princess. Not a single word of her speech made any impression on me. The following afternoon found me watching the training from the shadows of the hedge.

I was utterly fascinated by the idea that a mere mortal man could hold his own against hordes of creatures with a thin piece of metal or keep attacks at bay with a block of wood. In little time, I decided to teach myself the art of combat. I 'borrowed' from the guardhouse's storage closet one of their green uniforms. No dress could possibly allow me the freedom or amount of wear that I would require to learn how to fight. I practiced with sticks and quills as my sword, papers and large leaves as my shield, and my sitting room or the gardens as my battlefield. As much as I practiced, though, I was never very good.

Fortunately, the guard uniform was not just useful for my pathetic attempts at swordplay. It was also the only piece of clothing I owned that would allow me to ride my beloved horse stride-saddle. We were a close pair, Epona and I. Sometimes I swore that she spoke to me as we took our long rides around the castle grounds and, eventually, around the fields just outside of town. It was on one of these rides that I came to regret taking the soldier's uniform for the first time.


	2. Chapter 2

Fire. Burning. Pain. On my shoulders and neck, my back and my scalp. Blood, blood on my hands and my stomach and in my eyes. Suddenly everything was slippery and I felt myself sliding out of my saddle. I barely felt the ground.

* * *

I can only translate dialogue as clearly as I remember it, but at the time of my awakening my head was not very clear. My thoughts were muddled, my consciousness thick with the foggy haze of sleep.

"Young man? Trainee? Young man?" came a heavy, masculine voice through the cloud surrounding me. "He's coming to," the voice came again, quieter this time. I forced my eyelids to open a crack. A harsh blast of light caused me to flinch and close my eyes tightly once again.

"Here," the voice murmured once again. The red glow on the back of my eyelids dimmed to a dark crimson color. "The light has been dimmed. You can open your eyes, now." I tried a second time, and this time I was able to separate my eyelids enough to observe my surroundings and my companions.

I was lying face-up on a flimsy, coarse cot. The room around me was dim, the ceiling rafters low. Two other identical cots were placed on either side of mine, and a green-clothed man sat on the edge of each. The lamp on a small table at the foot of the cot was covered with a cloth, throwing the corners of the room into shadow. Even this dim light caused a sharp pain behind my eyes when I looked nearby. A small moan slipped from between my lips.

"It is alright, boy. The enemy patrol that attacked you was eliminated. One of our own found you lying in the dirt, bloody and scorched. We cleaned up your wounds and gave you some red potion to speed up the healing process. You are safe with us, young man," the policeman to my left explained. His was the kind voice from before.

"Who are you, kid?" said the one on my right, his tone much rougher and demanding than the other's had been. "You're not one of our trainees, that's for sure. Where'd you come from?" The kinder soldier shot him a look.

"At ease, Aven," he commanded. "Leave the boy alone."

I shook my head and started to prop myself up on one elbow. The cool rag on my forehead slipped off of my face and landed beside me on the cot. I spoke as twisted around to retrieve it: "I am-" were the only words that I could say before an overwhelming wave of vertigo blurred the vision of the bloody and sooty rag before my eyes. With a breathy sigh and a nautious feeling in my throat I collapsed back on to the cot.

"Do not tax yourself too much, young son. Your health is much more important than your identity," the kind soldier said, taking the dirty rag and rinsing it several times in a basin of water at his feet.

"Did you call Captain Dragmire, Vasepnu?" Aven asked.

"Yes," Vasepnu answered, placing the clean rag on my forehead once again. "He should arrive any moment now. How old are you, boy?"

"I am fifteen. Where am I?" I asked. I could feel my voice grating in my throat, and it came out much hoarser and deeper than usual. I swallowed thickly against the dry sting. "And why do you keep calling me-" Once again I was interrupted, this time by a harsh bout of coughing.

"You inhaled a lot of smoke while you were out. Drink water," Vasepnu advised, lifting to my lips a coarse wooden cup.

"You are in the barracks room of New Hyrule's guardhouse," Aven told me. "I am Officer Aven, and my companion is Sargent Vasepnu. We are members of the New Hyrule Police Guard under Captain Dragmire." I must admit that I nearly swooned at that particular moment, having at last entered my most coveted of buildings. I was lucky to have avoided choking on the last of Vasepnu's water when I gasped. Fortunately, my spluttering had concluded by the time Captain Dragmire swung open the door.

Captain Dragmire was an intimidating man. Tall, broad, and thick with muscle, he exuded dominance and power like no man I had ever come into contact with. He wore a different uniform from the other guards: a midnight black bodysuit beneath decorated silver armor and a knee-length cape. His generous brows made his eyes seem small and cold, and his mouth did not look like one that smiled often. As he stood at the door, his eyes flicked around the room until they landed on me.

"What have you found, Sargent?" he asked in a deep rumble.

"A boy, Captain. Fifteen, found lying unconscious on the ground after an attack by an enemy patrol in the Northern fields. The opposing forces have been eliminated," Vasepnu added.

"And he is one of ours?" the Captain asked, still remaining in the doorway.

"He's wearing one of our tunics, and he carries the Mark of Hyrule," Aven interjected, picking up my left wrist and showing the brown tattoo all men and women of New Hyrule were given on their twelfth birthday.

"Indeed," Captain Dragmire murmured. He took several paces into the room, his large strides carrying him to stand near the foot of my cot. He inspected me from there, his eyes traveling from the soles of my boots, up the length of my dirty tunic, and across my face. When his eyes met my own, he noticeably stiffened.

"May I lift the cloth on the light?" he asked, his eyes still boring into mine uncomfortably. I nodded. Without removing his gaze, Captain Dragmire pinched the cloth between his finger and thumb and slowly lifted it from the lamp. His stare became more and more apprehensive as the room grew lighter, as if the great warrior were afraid of what the light would cast into view. As soon as the cloth was completely gone from the lamp, the Captain snarled angrily. He whirled around, cape flaring behind him, and threw the lamp cloth to the floor in a forceful and violent flick of the wrist.

"Take him to the dungeons!" he practically roared, rage evident in his harsh shouts. "Our plans have been accelerated. We go tonight. Spread the word." With a final grand flutter of his cape, Captain Dragmire was gone and the door behind him slammed shut. Aven was on his feet immediately.

"You heard the Captain," he said roughly to me, his pleasure at my predicament obvious. "Get up!" He grabbed my wrist tightly and dragged me to my feet. I cried out when my knees caved and I slumped to the floor, but Aven paid my agony no mind and hoisted me aloft once a gain. I was yanked out of the room, out of the building, down a rutted gravel path, and down a staircase. My feet only barely supported me, and I did not resist, even when Aven toppled me to the ground with a hard shove and slammed a heavy wooden door in my face.

"Stop," I protested after the door had closed. But my voice was a mere whisper, so quiet that none could possibly hear me. "I am Princess Zelda-Sayre... I cannot be imprisoned... I can't... Let me go..." The quiet words slipped from my lips even as I fell into unconsciousness once again.

* * *

I felt much stronger after awakening, even if I was terribly sore from hours immobile on the cold stone floor. I was aware of where I was. I, the Princess of New Hyrule, had been imprisoned in the underground 'guardcells'. None but the police were permitted to enter, and no prisoner here had ever been released or escaped. A small flash of gratitude passed through me when I was able to sit up without any dizziness, and an emotion similar to joy slipped into my heart when I found myself capable of crawling over to the water bucket in the corner of my cell. I leaned over the dark water to take a drink and finally realized why all three policemen had thought me a soldier-in-training.

Apart from my ripped, burned, and bloody tunic, which was certainly a masculine look to it, I looked like a boy. I wore little makeup when on horseback rides, and the small amount that I had smeared on earlier that day before my ride had been completely washed away. My heart-shaped lips had become chapped and bloody, and bruises mottled the left side of my face. Most importantly, though, the majority of my thick, hip-length cornsilk hair had been burned away. All that remained was a ragged and shaggy boy's cut. I brushed my diminutive bangs off of my forehead with small tears forming in my cerulean eyes. I have never been a vain girl, despite being told all too often that I am beautiful, but my hair was one of my greatest prides. It had been growing out since I was seven, and to suddenly find my luxurious mane diminished to a short, ratty mess stung. I sat back on my heels, thirst all but forgotten.

I knew where I was. I knew what I looked like. Yet I had no idea what to do.


	3. Chapter 3

Hours passed. Each hour felt like a day, though. I lay down when I became tired and woke up stiff and cold. I assumed then, as I do now, that my body's biological clock knew when was evening and when was morning. That is how I knew one day had passed in my windowless cell. By the time I became tired once again, no food or fresh water had been brought to me. I took to disposing of my wastes in the corner opposite my water bucket, right across the room from the door. I became terribly hungry, and I fell asleep to the erratic groans of my unhappy stomach. After I woke the second time, I knew that I had to make my escape or die inside of the cruel prison walls.

Deciding that I was in no state of mind to make a logical plan of action, I simply draped myself against the wall near the door and pounded furiously on the hardwood. I shouted several times, but it caused great pain to my throat to do so. There was no response to my racket. Curious, I hauled myself to my feet using cracks in the stone wall and yanked at the shallow handle carved into the door by another prisoner from long ago. To my immense surprise, it opened slightly. I jubilantly pushed it open the rest of the way. A grotesque scene met my eyes.

Every last cell door hung open, many of them looking battered and one knocked out of the frame altogether. Long knife marks marred the stone and wood of the hall, as well as the trampled bodies of a dozen Hylian soldiers. The putrid stench of death and evil caused the bile in my throat to rise. The guard posted at my cell lay at my feet. His body was in better condition than the majority of his comrades' corpses, but an enormous gash ran from one ear to the other. The blood on the mortal wound was dark and crusty and infested with writhing white maggots. I swallowed the vomit that filled my mouth, refusing to further violate the men who had fought to the death keeping evil prisoners in jail. My personal police's sword was driven into the soft caulk between stones on the floor, almost as if the young man had left it there just for me. I gave thanks to his spirit as my hand wrapped around the grip and I lifted the blade free of the earth. I had never truly held a sword before, and the weapon felt awkward in my clumsy grip.

I picked my way through the carnage on the prison floor and made my way outside. Immediately, I wished that I had remained in my lonely prison cell. The formerly beautiful yard that had once sprawled around the guardcells was utterly decimated, the grass torn up by hundreds of boots and piles of bodies strewn about, Hylian policeman, prisoner, and civilian casualties alike. Black smoke rose from further catastrophe over the surrounding wall. Fat, wet tears sprang to my eyes at the desolation before me. I yearned to stop and mourn for the loss here, longed to drop to my knees and cry out to the heavens my sorrow and fear and bewilderment. Instead, I climbed a trellis on the prison wall and jumped down to the other side.

At last, I knew precisely where I was. If I turned to the left and followed the prison wall for a distance, I would encounter the front gates to the castle of New Hyrule. I raced toward my home, struggling with the unfamiliar sword in my hand but refusing to relinquish my only defense. The front gate to the palace had been obliterated: the stone columns that had supported its hinges smashed to pieces and the mangled metal gate itself cast aside. My heart turned to a cold stone in my chest.

"Mother! Father!" I screeched in the husk of a voice I had left. I dodged several bodies at the front gate, none of them my mother or father, but once I passed into the castle grounds the corpses stopped appearing.

The front doors ricocheted against the walls when I burst into the entryway. Another pair of deceased lay at the foot of the stairs, this time a maid and what looked to be a stable boy, wrapped in each other's arms. I leaped over them and charged for the upper floors and my parents' quarters. Neither their shared rooms nor the Queen's private sitting room were occupied. My quarters and the council room were empty as well. The final location I could think to check was the emergency bunker, which had supposedly been built by the Hero and the pirate themselves. I didn't need to cut myself in any way to smear my blood on the proper mural. The bricks of the wall slid away to reveal an utterly empty, completely dark cavern.

I choked on my own sob and finally dropped down. The desolation surrounding me, the disappearance of my parents, and the destruction of the castle pressed down like enormous stones upon my heart. I cried for over an hour before I thought to check the sanctuary for clues. Lacking a sheathe, I slipped the naked sword into my belt for safekeeping while I looked around. While it was an emergency safety precaution, no royal family could bear to survive without the elegance they constantly lived in. Velvet draperies were hung on the walls around portraits and paintings, the tables had cloths, there was a china cabinet and fireplace, and each of the light cups was solid gold. Everything was lifted and checked beneath and behind, drawers were rifled through, and I even looked for ashes in the hearth. There was no sign of anyone having been in this room but for me.

As I was leaving, I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror that hung on the wall. My hand went to the grip of the blade at my side before I realized that the figure in the mirror was me, Sayre. My clothes were bloody, streaked with dirt, sweat, and soot. My face and hands were similarly grimy, and my beautiful hair was short, burned at the ends, and streaked with all manner of foul things. With tears cleaning thin river on my face and my hand on the sword's hilt, I could not have looked more apart from the life I had always known here in the palace. I swallowed the tears that threatened to rise against me again. I was Princess Zelda-Sayre, and it was my duty as Princess of New Hyrule to resurrect my kingdom.


	4. Chapter 4

With my resolution restored, I fled the castle. Of course, I stopped by my quarters first to acquire essential items, such as a bar of soap, writing supplies, my horse whistle, and a second pair of riding boots I kept hidden in my closet for many years. I shoved all but the sword into a burlap satchel one of my handmaids had mistakenly left behind some time ago. I fetched my dagger from the uppermost drawer of my writing desk and slipped it into the lining of my left boot for safekeeping. Truthfully, the dagger was a delicate ceremonial one inlaid with gold and gemstones, but it was sharp nonetheless and could prove useful. After gathering all of my supplies, I used the servants' stairs to leave the castle rather than venture out the front and wade into the horror a second time.

The servants' door opens into a small garden, used for composting waste and growing crops for the cooks, maids, and hands' own consumption. The wall in this area separated the servant garden and The Field, and it was the escape route I used most often to avoid my studies with Imap.

I whistled for Epona immediately after touching ground again. When no familiar whinny met my attentive ears, I called my mare a second time. There was still no response, and my resolve to be courageous nearly crumbled when I realized that my beloved friend, my beautiful sorrel mare, had been taken or killed by whoever had destroyed the town. I took a steadying breath before setting my course to the ruins of the ancient Sky Tower.

Imap had told me that the structure was once called something else, but it's true name had been lost to memory. Supposedly, the tower's uppermost peak brushed the skies and called down great power from the heavens. Once it had been broken by an ambitious and corrupt aide to the throne, but the Princess of the time was able to use a lost magic to reform the tower and restore the land to peace. Though it had crumbled since this Princess' time, many believed that it's ruins possessed remnants of her magic and could heal injury, repair broken relationships, and bring prosperity to those that made pilgrimage. Despite her dismissal of the legends, Imap advised me to relocate to the tower in a dire situation. My current predicament undoubtably fell beneath that definition.

Of course, once I had arrived at the crumbling Tower I had no idea where to go. Wary of the dilapidated state of the building, I crept inside to find myself in a large circular room with a crumbling archway on each wall. In the center of the room sat what I believed was a mechanism for turning locomotive trains around. My sheltered life within the castle walls had never brought me to a train station or any other location where I would have seen such a system, but since trains were such an integral piece of our society, Imap had insisted that I familiarized myself with their workings. Often I had suspected that her motives lay elsewhere than my proper education, but I never questioned my tutor's lessons. I was pleased when I saw the ancient Hylian text for 'Staircase' etched over one of the less rubble-choked archways.

Each step I took on the staircase was a careful, calculated risk. I could fall through the floor and meet my death, but if I simply awaited a savior I would certainly perish. When the stairs ended in an abrupt wall of debris I nearly cried out. What was I to do now?! As I began to inspect the rubble before me for weak spots, a bright light began to shine from the opposite side.

"Stand back!" a woman's voice shouted. I obeyed, and after no more than three steps the rocks in front of me exploded in a sudden burst of fire and noise. When the dust and smoke from the bomb cleared, an ever-so-familiar figure stood in front of me.

"Imap!" I cried, stumbling over the rubble on the stairs as I rushed to wrap my beloved tutor in an embrace.

"Princess," she murmured soothingly, placing her hand on the back of my head. "Sayre... Are you well?" I withdrew from the hug and looked up into her eyes. They were a rich lavender color, like a lake at twilight bathed in shadows.

"I believe so," I told her truthfully, wiping the small tears of relief away with the heel of my hand. Imap nodded once, and I could see her eyes inspecting the length of my body. Suddenly, she reached out and lifted my left hand.

"Do you know why we tattoo the Mark of Hyrule on the inside of the left wrist?" she asked, sounding urgent.

"Because the Hero was left-handed," I replied. I attempted to gently draw my wrist from her grip, but her hand only tightened.

"Indeed." She sharply flipped my arm over so that my palm was facing the ground and stared at the back of my hand with intent eyes. Whatever she sought with her gaze, she found. I could tell when her eyes flashed and she dropped my hand. "Sayre, there are many forces at work here that you are unaware of, powers understood by none but the Hero himself. You have had an important destiny thrust upon you since birth, and it is my role as your teacher to help you know all that you must. Follow me up the staircase."

Imap turned her back to me as she never had before and hurried up the stairs before me. It was only as I followed her to a narrow hallway that I took notice of her garb; instead of the simple purple dress and white sash she had worn in the past, the tutor was now clothed in a loose black bodysuit and calf-height black hiking boots, and outfitted with arm guards and an array of daggers at her silver belt.

"So much of our people's history has been lost to time," she began the moment my boot scuffed the topmost stair. "Too much knowledge of our origins and our past has been forgotten. Even the legends that my people know are incomplete, and only date to the time of the Hero and the pirate.

"When the original Hyrule still lived, it was a corrupt land. The great creator spirits had deserted their people, and a great evil threatened to destroy everything that existed in conquest of a single artifact from before time. This item was known as the Triforce, three golden triangles formed of pure magic that could grant any who touched it a wish, left on the earth by the creator goddesses to remind their people of hope. The evil man sought to restore the kingdom he had once ruled and to use the population of his nation to conquer all of Hyrule. Many attempted, but none could stop the former king's great power. And so the goddesses flooded the land, trapping the evil king and the Triforce deep beneath the waves of the ocean.

"But they could not stop him for long, and as the evil one broke his bonds and renewed his quest for the Triforce a Hero was born. It was his destiny to kill the evil king and seal the Triforce back into a safe place. The wish he made on the triangles led this Hero and his pirate companions to a new land, upon which they established a country of the goddesses like the one before it. New Hyrule was safe from the evil king and the threats that the Triforce had brought upon the old kingdom.

"All too soon, however, a corrupt chancellor attempted to resurrect the evil king and usurp the throne. He was only half-successful, as the resurrected creature was a pale shadow of the evil king's power and was soon defeated by the reincarnation of the first Hero. This Hero came to be known as the Hero of the Train, after the spirit vessel he travelled Hyrule in. But this chancellor was not seeking the Triforce, nor was his creation. Hyrule remained secure from the greatest danger. Cycles of corruption and evil have come and gone since, but none were enough of a threat to call forth the Hero's soul once again.

"When the Hero first landed here, he and the pirate encountered a race of people learned in magic and skilled in stealthy combat known as the Sheikah. Knowing that Hyrule would forget the old stories but certain that the people would need to know someday, he passed on all of his knowledge to these people and swore them to protect the secrets of Hyrule for all of eternity. I am a direct descendant of the original men and women that swore their loyalty to the Hero. When the Hero of Trains was born, one of our elders received a dream and appointed a guard of our kind to the princess of that era. As the Hero and the princess followed their destinies, our warriors watched from the shadows and helped from behind the scenes until the chancellor was dead. Just before the first Hero alighted on these shores, the ruling chief of our people dreamt of the Triforce's power." She paused and took a deep breath, exhaling with a huff before turning toward me with a frightfully serious expression on her face. She folded her arms, and her purple eyes met mine.

"Fifteen years ago, I personally had a dream of a young woman with the green-garbed appearance of the legendary Hero and was sent to protect the newest member of Hyrule's royal family: Zelda-Sayre."

Author's Note: A little long-winded, and mostly repeating stuff that everyone already knows because it's happened in the games! However, there are a few slight changes since all the stories were passed along by word-of-mouth, and even dear Imap doesn't know the entirety of the true story (which involves a lot of theorizing on my part).

In any case, I respectfully beg you to review! I love getting critique on my work and everything I hear/read I will take into account immediately. Plus, I want to know if my story is even enjoyable to anyone but me. So please do review.

Excelsior!

kiboeme


	5. Chapter 5

I shook my head, bewildered by her words. What significance could I possibly have in the grand scheme of Hyrule? Why would the Sheikah have felt the need to send a protector to me?

"What does it mean? What do I mean?" I asked Imap quietly. She shook her head several times.

"That, I do not know. Even if I did, I believe that I would be forbidden from telling you. Knowledge of destiny is what leads to arrogance or depression, neither of which can I allow to taint your mind with right now." A sudden urgency slipped into her tone, laced with an emotion that chilled by blood: desperation.

"All of my power has been sapped by the evil that pervades the kingdom now. Fortunately, some of my lesser magical faculties have remained, but the majority of the magic I know has vanished. I have no contact with my fellow Sheikah, but I can only assume that their power is gone as well. Whoever lead the attack had powerful magic allies. New Hyrule is at its most vulnerable. It is my responsibility as your appointed Sheikah guard that I take you to safety and guard you until Hyrule has fallen into peace once again." She took a deep breath.

"However," she began solemnly, calm once again, "I fear that I am unable to keep you safe in my weakened state. Though it is against clan laws and my better judgement, I must teach you to defend yourself. Lady Sayre, draw your sword." Despite my mentor's depressing words, elation filled my heart as I was finally permitted to raise a blade and learn to fight. I grasped the hilt of the sword with both hands and raised it, holding it in front of me at a slight angle. Imap watched my movements with gleaming eyes.

"You are relatively familiar with the movements of a sword, thanks to your self-training," she began, stepping toward me with laughter glinting in her purple irises. I blinked, surprised that she knew anything of my 'training'; I had thought that I kept it secret from everyone, especially Imap. "But wielding a blade requires much more than simply swinging it back and forth. It requires grace, speed, strategy, and lots of experience. While I cannot train you to win a fight against a trained warrior in the little time we have, I can give you enough skill to scare off a monster. The first step is to hold your sword with one hand."

Obediently, I took my right hand away from the hilt and dropped it at my side. "Good," Imap said. "Now, copy me." She held one of her hands to the side of her body and, in a brief flash of light, a thin wooden sword appeared in her grip. As soon as it had arrived, she shifted the angle of her wrist and swung the sword across her body horizontally with the edge of the 'blade' leading her strike. I narrowed my eyes and lifted my own weapon. I copied Imap to the best of my ability, but there was incredible resistance to my swipe and I could barely hold my wrist straight, much less move the sword as quickly as Imap had. As expected, she shook her head in disapproval.

"Again," she commanded. "This time, ensure that your sword is at the right angle. If you lead with the flat of your blade, wind resistance will slow your strike and break your wrists with its force." I nodded, understanding her explanation, and tried once again. This time, my strike was better. The sword seemed to push itself through the air.

"Better. But now, Sayre, you must feel your sword. It is not a piece of metal, it is a part of your body. You have as much control over it as you do of your arm." I tried again, and I was immensely pleased by my progress. Imap was not.

"Again," she ordered. She repeated the word after every single swing of my sword until, at long last, her patience broke.

"FEEL THE BLADE! It knows better than you what you're doing- let it lead." I grit my teeth in some frustration and swung again, trying to just let my arm and body move with the momentum of the sword. I shouted with effort.

"Hiiiiyaaaa!" I let the sword lead, I pretended my arm was long and sharp and made of shining steel. I swept the sword over my head and spun around to make a vertical slash through the air in front of me when I finished the spin. My sword halted its descent as it came within inches of the dilapidated stone floor, and I stood there motionless, breathing hard and looking to Imap with hope. Her lips were curved into a gentle smile of approval.

"Well done," she murmured, nodding and unfolding her crossed arms. She took a few steps toward me and held out a simple leather sheathe. I had put it on my back and slipped my sword into it before Imap began to speak again. "So long as you allow this natural connection to your sword to continue, you will be able to cleave any enemy from your path. Including your parents' captor," she added gravely. I tensed.

"Where is he?" I growled, more than prepared and willing to cleave the traitor's head from his shoulders with my newfound skills.

"I don't know. What I do know is this: this evil that you face is an evil that has been brought by destiny and that will be conquered by destiny alone. If the Sheikah tribe did not sense the coming of the darkness and cannot stop it, one girl alone cannot end it. You are a part of this destiny, Lady Sayre, and in order to find this person and rescue your parents you must embark upon a quest to reform the Pedestal of the Triforce. The Triforce is an artifact that poses many dangers, but it is the only magic left in this land powerful enough to stop the evil that overwhelms us now."

"At the top of this tower lies the first piece of the Pedestal. If you take it into your possession, it will help you to locate the first of a group of Sages. There are seven Sages that each possess a piece of the Pedestal. Once the Sages and the Pedestal are assembled, you will be able to summon the Triforce and use its power to save your kingdom with a wish. I must stay here and guard the Tower, but you should set out on your search immediately. There is no time to wait, for I predict that the evil one knows of the Pedestal and is also attempting to assemble it. Do you understand what you have to do?"

I nodded. Imap looked away from me, at the stairwell leading up to the second floor of the Tower of Light.

"Go that way," she advised. "I believe that the stairs that remain are stable enough to hold your slight weight." I stepped toward the staircase.

"Imap," I mumbled when I got to the bottom step, "thank you." I glanced over my shoulder at my beloved tutor. She smiled thinly, not breaking her solemn expression with happiness.

"It has been my honor to teach you, Lady Sayre. Good luck. Now go, before it is too late." I bowed my head in assent and returned my attention to the stairs before me.

"I will save them," I said loud enough that Imap could hear me without my turning to face her. "That, I swear."

"The goddesses are watching over you, Sayre. Now, GO!" Obeying her command, I put my feet on the stairs and hurried up them.

AN: So, I'm learning how to write the language of "Sword"! And it's trickier than one might think. There are only so many words for a sword, and I know absolutely nothing about fencing or fights. Thank you for reading, and please take the time to review. It warms my heart to no end to have someone leave a review for me to read.


	6. Chapter 6

The ruins of the the Triforce Pedestal were pitiful, if they were once a part of the Triforce Pedestal at all. It looked to have once been magnificent, gleaming with gold, white marble, and precious gems. Years of being beaten by the winds and rains and snows, however, had taken their toll on the structure and broken it into rubble. Three pillars of crumbly stone must once have been pillars, the raised platform with gold inlays had broken and lost its luster, and what little remained of the engravings and gold was coated in a solid layer of muck. Seven colored gemstones circled the main structure of the Pedestal and even they were chipped, faded, scratched, and dirty. All of it was so broken down that I was unsure enough remained to rebuild. What Imap wished me to do I hadn't a clue.

As I stepped forward for closer inspection of the mess, one of the gemstone disks began to glow. The light was very faint, so faint, in fact, that I would have been unable to see it in full daylight. I stood from where I knelt by the triangular gold pieces on the raised center platform and moved to stand by the glowing gem. It pulsed slightly brighter, and then I heard hushed singing. I brushed away the grime that coated the surface of the sky blue stone and deciphered the engraving as best I could around the remaining filth and fading.

"For he who... call the Triforce hence from its... drive your sword... to .. the first..." I translated hesitantly. I unsheathed my sword obediently and gently lowered it, hilt facing skyward, to the surface of the gem. The aura surrounding it brightened and grew, seeming to reach up and light my blade with the same cerulean glow. I took a deep breath and hesitated for a moment before plunging my blade into the stone before me. A bright blue flash surrounded me, and I was momentarily blinded.

My eyes opened just a bit, then whipped open much more to further reveal my new location. Though I had not moved myself and was in the same crouching position I had assumed after stabbing the gemstone, I was somewhere utterly foreign to me. Instead of the drab grey clouds that had surrounded me at the top of the Sky Tower, I was in the midst of a wooded glade with my word buried in the soft earth.

Curious, I straightened and pulled my sword from the ground. After sheathing it I began to look around myself. My first impression of the area as a simple forest clearing was not incorrect. I was completely alone in that small area. It was quiet.

"Hello?" I called into the trees, hoping to at least stir up the wildlife. Much to my surprise, my call to the Forest was answered by a human.

"Up here," came the feminine voice. My eyes tracked the sound from the bottoms of the trunks near the forest floor, where I had looked previously, up to the lower boughs of the trees. Resting in a small nook between a particularly sturdy branch and the smooth trunk of a hazel tree was a woman not much older than myself. Our eyes met, and I found her hazel irises to be surprisingly cool and distant. "Who are you?" she asked briskly, not straightening from her relaxed lounging position.

"I am Zelda Sayre, Princess of the Kingdom of New Hyrule and heir to the Queen's throne," I introduced myself with my full title, intending to impress. She was not.

"You're not the one I'm waiting for," she replied in a bored tone. She looked away from me and turned her attention to her fingernails. For whatever reason, this irritated me terribly.

"Well I am quite sorry, then," I snapped, "for I am the only one you are going to get." She looked at me again with lifted eyebrows.

"Really? Guess I can't discount you, if that's the case." She shifted position so that her legs dangled from the tree branch. "Except.. I was given instructions to ignore everyone who came here unless they were the one I'm looking for. So get out."

"No. I will not. Who is it that you are waiting for? I can practically promise to you that they will not ever arrive. Some great evil has overtaken the kingdom, captured the King and the Queen, destroyed the capital city, and utterly negated the powers of the Sheikah tribe. I know not whom you are or what your purpose is, but my purpose is to reassemble the Triforce Pedestal and save Hyrule," I told her vehemently, my tone shifting between sardonic and angry. Something that I said caught her interest.

"Did you mention the tribe of the Sheikah?" I nodded.

"Yes. One of them is my tutor and mentor, Imap, who was sent to guard me after she had a dream about me." The girl remained in her treetop perch for a moment longer, then slid down the wide trunk to stand directly in front of me. I could see now that her coarse dress was loose upon her figure, her tangled brown mane of hair was swept into a tail, and strapped across her back was a quiver of arrows and a bow.

"You might just be the one," she said, all traces of resentment vanished from her manner and voice. "I'm Marcel, and I'll be teaching you to use a bow and arrow. Or, rather," she smiled wickedly, her angular features slipping into a smirk, "I'll be testing you on how to use a bow and arrow."

"How will I be tested," I asked warily, eyeing her weapons with suspicion.

"Oh," Marcel replied nonchalantly, "I'll just be trying to kill you."

**AN: Sorry for the lengthy break in the story, and for the short chapter. Just wanted to post something so nobody thought I had quit writing the story. Please, review! I love reviews! Thank you all for reading, and I will have he next (much longer) chapter up within the next 10 days. **


	7. Chapter 7

"Kill me?" I cried. I took a hasty step away from Marcel, my eyes likely wide with alarm. Marcel, on the other hand, remained utterly calm.

"Yeah, more or less," she replied with great calm. "The idea is to stop you if you aren't worthy of fixing up the Pedestal and to sharpen you up if you are. So think fast!"

In a movement so quick that I could hardly track it with my eyes or register it with my brain, Marcel snatched the bow from behind her back and an arrow from the quiver, and pointed the drawn weapon at me. She released the bowstring after merely a moment of aiming, and the arrow flew at me with blinding speed. Much to my surprise, I found myself moving on instinct, unsheathing my sword and bringing it up directly in the path of Marcel's arrow. It bounced off of my blade with a clinking sound and fell to the ground harmlessly. I, of course, chose that moment to look between my sword and the arrow, and when I raised my gaze once again Marcel had vanished. I made a noise of surprise that was not quite loud enough to cover the sound of rustling leaves in the otherwise silent clearing. Marcel was in the branches of a tree behind me.

I whirled and lifted my sword the same way that I had before, ready for an arrow that had been fired at my vulnerable back when I had been facing the other way. Metal arrowhead struck metal blade once again.

"Good job, good job," Marcel's voice came from the treetops. "Now, let's see how well you do without your sword." Without warning, my sword vanished from my hand without a trace. I spun in a circle, looking all around me for my weapon. It was nowhere to be found, and Marcel began attacking me with her bow once again. My sword was my protection from her arrows and without it, I ran.

"Where you going, Princess?" Marcel yelled at me. The arrows were coming from every direction at once, chasing me in a circle around the glade. While her words were surely meant to mock me, they instead served to inspire me.

"Into the woods!" I replied in a shout. Without stopping or changing direction, I suddenly threw myself into the brush that surrounded Marcel's clearing. I stumbled once on a root or fallen stick, but as I darted deeper into the cover of the trees the rain of arrows ceased.

Once I was safe, I paused and took a moment to catch my breath. I bent over and rested my hands upon my bent knees, and lying in front of me as if by prophecy was a long and thick branch that had fallen from the tree above at some point or another. When I hefted it in my hands it felt quite sturdy, and it was approximately the same length and width as my sword. I could use this stick to defend myself.

With my confidence restored, I went turned back toward the clearing. When I reached the edge of the woods, I was careful to look around for Marcel. I could not see her anywhere, and so I stepped from the secure shadows of the forest. All of the arrows that she had fired at me earlier had vanished from the ground, and no more of them came at me from the shadows of the treetops. Then one did.

A sleek black arrow unique from all the others that I had dodged streaked from the woods behind me, just missing my right shoulder as it flew past. It landed in the direct center of the clearing, stabbed through the middle of a small piece of paper. I plucked the arrow from the ground and read the note.

"You survived the first part. Now find your bow and come after me if you want your sword back," it read. I frowned and crumpled the paper in my fist. What sort of game did Marcel think she was playing? Obviously, the girl did not understand the mortal peril my kingdom was in. Unfortunately for me, following her instructions was the only way I could return to New Hyrule and pursue the other Sages. In Marcel's orders, however, was a fatal flaw. I had no bow. Deeply frustrated, I flung the strange black arrow away from me, in the direction it had come. Instead of the expected rustle and crunching of foliage I expected was a wooden thunk.

I turned. Behind me in the same spot I had exited the woods from was a broad wooden chest. It had not been there before. I approached it and opened it. Within the depths of the container was a sleek bow made of what looked to be osage and a leather quiver filled with about two dozen golden-fletched arrows. I lifted the set tenderly, inspecting it from all sides. This must have been the bow Marcel's note referred to. With a deep breath to brace myself, I slung the bow and quiver over my back and set off into the woods before me in search of Marcel.

Several times I was tempted to simply begin calling out to her, but something held me back from doing so. Perhaps I was secretly afraid of awakening some terrible beast with my yells. Instead, I just kept jogging through the forest. Marcel was, unfortunately, nowhere to be found. After a long time searching, I needed a break. I sat down with my back against the tree and the bow on my knees.

"Great goddesses, it took you long enough to give up!" Marcel cried from above me. My head whipped backward, smacking against the tree behind me painfully. Through the tears that swam in my eyes, I saw Marcel leap from the branches above and land on the forest floor in front of me.

"Where have you been?" I cried.

"Following you, of course."

"And you didn't think it was worthwhile to tell me that I was trying to find someone that was right behind me the whole time?" I scrambled to my feet, slipping the bow over my back once again.

"That was the point," Marcel replied patronizingly. I fumed. "My goal was to see how long it took you to give up. And it took forever."

I gaped at her like a fish, unable to articulate the frustration I felt.

"Anyway," she continued when I did not respond to her earlier statement, "you passed. You are the person that I'm supposed to help."

"I told you that hours ago," I grumbled through clenched teeth. "In any case," I continued, forcing myself to brighten up and act as the princess I knew myself to be, "now that you are aware of whom I am, what is it that I need you for? I must admit that I am very much at a loss as to how I am supposed to continue from here."

Marcel looked at me flatly. "That's why I didn't think you were the right person. Follow me back to the clearing and I'll explain some stuff to you."

**AN: Please please review! I love to see that people like my work, and it is always so helpful to receive critique on my writing. Thanks!**


	8. Chapter 8

I obediently followed Marcel back toward the main clearing in the woods. Despite her repeated (if consistently ineffective) attempts upon my life, I had a trust of the girl ingrained on my heart. I could not explain it to myself at the time, and neither can I now; all I am aware of is that I felt nothing but trust when I met her eyes. When the pair of us arrived at her glade, Marcel folded her legs beneath her and sat on the ground. I copied her, and I will admit that, now that I was neither fighting nor running through a partially-destroyed building, I was slightly surprised to not have my usual long skirt impede my movements. Marcel loosened the quiver from her shoulder and rested her sleek bow on the grass beside her. Again I moved to mimic her, but this time she shot me a glare when my fingers brushed the leather straps holding my quiver on my back.

"I wouldn't take that off, if I were you," she warned. I frowned, but my trust in her compelled me to listen to her advice.

"Why?" I asked, lowering my hands from the strap and instead folding them into my lap.

"Because you always need to be ready. Sayre, you're easy to kill. You may be the only one capable of saving the kingdom, but you only just learned how to use a bow and sword. If you get caught unaware..." She drew her index finger across her throat, pantomiming my death. "Hyrule can't afford for you to die."

"My throat will not be slit from behind when I am not looking," I protested.

"And I don't think you want to die, either," Marcel plowed on, utterly ignoring my adversity to what she was saying.

"You are implying that I am incapable," I grumbled aloud.

"I'm implying that you're way more important than you think you are, 'Princess'!" Marcel snapped back. She stood as she spoke and threw her hands into the air, making gestures to go along with her words. "I'm sure you've heard the stories of the Hero and the Pirate? Well you, my dear, are the Hero in this whole scenario," she said with scathing fury. It was all that I could do to blink at her back.

"What on earth are you speaking of?" Marcel had turned huffily away after the conclusion of her angry rant, but now she turned to me once again with narrowed and confused eyes.

"You don't know?"

"Know what, precisely?" Marcel's eyes grew wider. As if she were calling a truce on our spat, she thumped down again on the ground beside me. She exhaled fiercely, blowing her bangs from her face as she did so. After a silent minute, she asked me if I at least knew what the Triforce was. I was pleased for both our sakes that I could nod in the affirmative.

"The goddesses that created the Triforce," Marcel explained slowly, as if she were concerned about telling the legend incorrectly, "knew that some day, someone evil would try and get it. So they made it so that the Triforce would split into three pieces if someone with an unbalanced heart tried to take it for his own. Power went to the most powerful in the land, Wisdom to the wisest, and Courage to the bravest. An evil man from a faraway desert touched the Triforce long ago, splitting it into three and beginning a cycle.

"According to this cycle, the pieces of the Triforce would be passed along in the descendants of the original three bearers, lying dormant until the spirit of the Evil One rose up once again. Then the other two pieces of the Triforce, Courage and Wisdom, would awaken within their own bearers and guide all three to their destinies just like their ancestors. The Hero and the Pirate your people tell stories of today were two of the bearers of the Triforce that descended from the originals long ago.

"The one bearing Courage was usually a boy on the verge of becoming a man, and it was his destiny to be accompanied by the bearer of Wisdom along his journey to destroy the one who misused the Triforce of Power against the world. He was vicious and very powerful, and he was ruthless in his chase for the other two pieces of the Triforce. After the Hero of your stories defeated the Evil One, the Triforce was locked away again so that nobody could use it. But the cycle continued. The spirit of the Evil One was not locked away, and the people with the Evil One's spirit have been defeated three times in the past of New Hyrule. But his spirit has lain dormant for centuries without a peep.

"But now it seems that the Evil One has raised his ugly head again, and if you're here it means that you're the Hero the goddesses have chosen to seek out and destroy his spirit," she finished. Throughout the course of her tale I had sat quietly, dumbstruck. My silence spoke clearly of my deep reflection of the matter. Now, I whispered a revelation.

"I think the evil attacking my kingdom now is the original Evil One," I breathed fearfully. "He's come to get the Triforce back to himself." Marcel stood abruptly.

"I don't know that that's true– I really hope it's not true –but if that is the case you've spent way too long here. All of the other Sages are going to have adventures and tests of their own to teach you, to ready you for the final showdown. I'm just the gatekeeper." I stood beside her, brushing twigs and scraps of fern from my soldier's tunic.

"Where do I go next?"

"Purple," Marcel replied quickly, looking around the peaceful glade with alarmingly wary eyes.

"Marcel, what is the matter?" I asked her with much trepidation. Before she could respond, the clearing and forest shook with a violent tremor. From somewhere in the distance I heard a grumbling crack that sounded like breaking stone. The expression that Marcel then turned to me with caused a cold stone of dread to settle into my abdomen.

"You're too late," she whimpered. Indeed, this ornery and strong-willed Sage had shown a sign of deep and true fear. I swallowed anxiously.

"Is it... Him?" It was all that Marcel could do to nod at me. She shook herself harshly and stood, bow grasped tight in hand.

"Listen, he can't hurt me," she began to explain, her voice having returned to its usual sharp, defensive tone. "Not while I'm in this chamber and he's still out there." She gestured vaguely toward the sky.

"He can't hurt you until you leave, either, but the longer you stay here the more likely he is to get in and destroy us both, not to mention get into the other Sage chambers and force the seven of us to summon the Triforce for him."

"That would be bad," I interrupted.

"That would be bad," she agreed, nodding maternally. "Now, how to get you out of here and to the others without you dying..." Marcel turned away from me, hand on her hip. "You can't just face him head on, you're too weak right now to do that," she mused aloud. A sudden realization struck me.

"Imap!" I screeched. Marcel turned around.

"Imap? Your Sheikah mentor professor thingie?"

"Yes! She is still out there. She has been keeping watch further down on the tower. Whatever is attacking the tower now must have passed her and defeated her!" I cried, frantically searching the skies above and the meadow floor below for a route by which I could return to Imap. Marcel's hand was suddenly wrapped around my right shoulder, firm and warm and steady.

"You can't go out there," she told me sternly. "Remember? There's a big evil dude waiting for you to come to him so he can kill you and have nothing in the way of him getting the Triforce. Is that what you want? Is Imap more important than the fate of your whole kingdom?"

I wanted to attack her for this. I longed to scream and lunge at her, force it into her head that a choice between a loved one and the world was not as simple as she made it out to be. My dearest wish at the moment was to make her pay for the choice she had proposed to me. An angry beast inside of me itched to kill and injure and destroy someone, and Marcel was in the way of my fury. But I swallowed my rage. I put a short tether on the monster writhing around within and put on a calm mask.

"Hyrule is more important than Imap," I forced myself to say. "It is what she would have wished for me to do." There was little conviction to my words, and I believe that Marcel was as aware of my insincerity as I was. She accepted my statement, though, and released my shoulder.

"Good Princess. Now how to get you out of here..."

"There have got to be multiple entryways," I insisted, following Marcel while she laced about the clearing. The glade quaked beneath us every few minutes, each time accompanied by the crackling rumble of breaking stone and reminding us that time was desperately short. Marcel shook her head.

"Unfortunately, no. Couldn't give me more entries than I can protect, right? The way you got here is the only way in and out," she explained. "What I'm trying to do is figure out how to get you past whatever monsters and such are out there!" Another thunderous grumble sounded through the clearing and a moment later a particularly strong bout of quaking nearly knocked us off our feet.

"We do not have time for such thinking," I shouted at her. "I have to go, and risk my life to get to the next Sage. It is the only way." Marcel looked incredulous for a moment, but after seeing the conviction in my eyes she resigned herself to my daring plan.

"Fine," she said. She snapped her fingers, and in the midst of the clearing there appeared a glowing circle of light. "Stab your sword into there. You'll appear in the normal world in the same position as normal, so be ready for that. And, Sayre, remember that—"

The remainder of her reminder was cut off as I drove my blade into the shining sphere and faded from her world.

**_AN: Yay, long chapter! And this one was fun to write, too, not to mention how excited I am to write the next bit. Thanks for reading, and if you liked (or disliked) the story please please please review. -K_**


	9. Chapter 9

I reappeared on the rooftop of the Tower with debris falling down all around me. I was practically choked in a rain of dust and crumbly stones thrown down from above me by a pair of enormous winged and armored lizard-men. Their massive leathery wings beat the air noisily, pushing the dust down to the roof of the tower and thrusting it up my nostrils and into my mouth. I coughed and spluttered and darted for the stairs as quickly as I could–anywhere that I could go to escape the choking clouds.

Thankfully, the lizards did not see me flee and continued to destroy the tower as they had been before I arrived. What in Hyrule was I to do? I could not stand in one place for too long without being crushed by a falling brick, nor could I breathe or even see through the thick clouds of dust and dirt that had been stirred up. I pressed myself agains the back wall of the staircase, trying to figure out how I was to reach the purple gem in the floor and the second Sage's chamber. I looked around me, seeking inspiration, and I found it. The stairwell leading to the lower layers of the tower had a sloped roof, one that I could not see through the dust clouds because it was situated above the brown haze.

After ensuring that all of my weaponry was still with me and ready to be drawn, I left my sanctuary in the stairwell. With one hand on the wall, I followed the structure of the stairwell at a run until I reached the rear, where it was lowest. I scrambled up the sloped roof until I reached the top, where clearer air reigned. I paused, taking a moment to inhale the more or less clean air before I started to deal with the flying lizards. Unfortunately, they saw me the moment I emerged from the murk of the dust clouds.

With screeches that sounded like a cross between birds and dragons, they dove at me with heavy stones in their forelimbs. I panicked, and without thinking I drew the golden bow Marcel had given me and fired one of the arrows. It streaked toward the lizards at ten times the speed of their own flight and struck the nearest one in the center of his exposed neck. It tried to shriek at me once again, but the hole in his throat and the arrowhead within the hole transformed the noise into a pitiful and disgusting gurgle. I winced at the sound and, still unthinking, fired a second arrow at the other lizard man. This arrow did not hit so true; instead of striking the lizard in his exposed neck, it merely lodged itself in a chink of his armor nearby. He continued to fly menacingly toward me, and I haphazardly launched a third arrow from my bow. This one also failed to hit the creature where I wished it to, but it stabbed him through one of his hands holding the stone. It gave one of its horrible bird screams and yanked its hand off the brick. Then gravity completed my job by pulling the heavy stone block down on top of the lizard, immediately catching one of his wings on the downstroke and pulling the creature toward the floor at an alarming speed. It landed several yards away from its companion with an uncomfortable crunch.

As the dust cleared from the top of the tower, I sat down on the edge of the roof with my legs dangling over the stairs to marvel at the bow. I had no training with this weapon, and yet I had killed two enemies with three arrows and two minutes of fighting. I had not even touched my sword. It was then that I recalled Imap. She had said before I went into Marcel's Chamber of Light that she would be guarding me from below. Where had she been when the lizard creatures were attacking? My mind immediately leaped to the conclusion that she was gravely injured. I slid off my perch on the roof and darted down the stairs.

To my great surprise (and relief, I must add), Imap was standing at the bottom of the stairs unharmed.

"Imap!" I shouted when she came into view. My mentor turned around with a bemused expression.

"Princess? You have finished already?"

"Finished? Not nearly," I replied. Then I paused and tilted my head, confused. "Did you not hear the attack?"

"Attack?!" Imap responded, eyes wide with concern for me. She had obviously neither felt nor heard any sign of the destruction occurring above her. I lead her up to the roof of the tower and pointed toward the two lizard bodies on the ground, one with the arrow protruding from a clean neck wound and the other grotesquely pulverized beneath a heavy block of stone. She gazed at them appraisingly. "Did you kill them both on your own?"

I nodded first, then shook my head a bit. "Yes, but also no. I got this bow from the first Sage," I lifted the golden weapon, "and it seemed to operate by itself, directing my movements and instructing my hands on how to fire in precisely the right way."

Imap looked at the bow carefully, a mixture of puzzlement and awe in her eyes. "May I hold it?" she asked. I willingly obliged her, placing the weapon into her outstretched hand. She hefted its weight, then lifted it nearer to her face for closer inspection. After a short while, Imap returned the golden bow to me.

"This is a very special weapon," she told me. "Wield it proudly." I nodded and took back the bow. Imap looked around us at the dust and rubble. "They caused a mess, didn't they?"

"They certainly did," I replied with a small smirk. Then I stowed my bow. "I had better locate the next Sage." Imap nodded.

"Yes. If these lizalfos are any indication, the Evil One's powers are growing by the minute and he may send an entire army to attack at any moment. What color do you need?"

"Marcel told me to locate the purple gemstone," I told her, stepping forward to retrieve my arrows from the bodies of the creatures Imap had called a lizalfos. I was able to work the first arrow from the beast's neck with little trouble, but the second arrow had been broken in two by the weight of the lizalfos' fall. My final arrow remained intact, but the fletching on its end was slightly bent. After straightening the golden feathers, I slipped both arrows into my quiver and straightened. Imap helpfully gestured toward the back of the broken-down Triforce Pedestal, where the faintest hint of gleaming purple glowed through a thin layer of dust.

I thanked her for her assistance and stepped over the piles of stone to reach the violet inlay. Assuming the process for reaching this second Sage were the same as before, I raised my sword over my head and drove the blade deep into the stone. Once again, a bright light rise up the length of my sword to envelop my entire body. There was a flash, and then I had once again been transported to another world.

**_AN: Well, I really enjoyed writing this. It was exciting to play around with my favorite items from the games! Please please please review; I love to hear feedback more than you know. Thanks for reading, and for the review (assuming you leave one). -K_**


End file.
